Jay Wilson has had years of industrial design experience in both corporate and consulting positions helping clients design to produce innovative and successful products in a variety of industries where excellence in design was a critical factor.
Over the years I have made informal alliances with a number of other creative professionals which means that I am able to assemble virtual teams custom-tailored for specific projects, much like a film crew making a movie. My "value proposition" is a personalized service, innovative solutions, and single-point accountability.
Philosophy
It has been my experience that the best results come from small multidisciplinary teams unfettered by egos and united by a common vision. I have an innate ability to quickly synthesize disparate needs that provide insights that solve real problems, build brand equity and delight customers.
In a world where there are too many products seeking fewer and fewer buyers, it is incumbent on Design to provide solutions that are differentiated and sustainable. The planet does not need more commodities destined for the landfill.
Process
The best solutions are rarely the most obvious. We begin with an iterative process based on an agreed set of criteria based on solid research, brainstorm lots of ideas, prototype the most promising and learn from those that don't work. It's this learn-as-you-go, informed-intuition process that gets the best solutions the quickest. Qualified user evaluations can be fed into the process to begin a "looping" of design and evaluation to refine the ideas.
I consider my clients to be equal partners in the process with all attendant rights for questioning, feedback, and creative contributions. At the end of the day it is the marketplace that will reward those who took the time to do it right.
Top Five Innovation Killers...
Innovation has never been more important to companies as it is now. The recession is creating new needs and new forms of value are needed to fulfill them. Yet there remains a yawning gulf between business leaders' rhetoric on innovation and the reality on the ground. So what holds our companies back and why is innovation so rare?
Here are five factors that prevent successful innovation:
An intolerance of failure The number one top tactic for innovation, according to expert innovators, is to experiment fearlessly. Nothing works the first time so you might as well fail as quickly as possible. If you cannot accept failure you are unlikely to see too much innovation, no matter how much money you throw at it.
An excessive customer focus Professional managers are great at using customer research to make incremental improvements to existing products and services. But, faced with a radical new proposition, people are poor predictors of their own future behavior. The famous Italian designer Alberto Alessi avoids traditional focus groups but conducts pre-design market research to inform the process. If that upfront work is properly done, any customer inputs along the way are just check points.
A desire for a magic pill, rather than daily exercise Innovation is a way of life, not an isolated program change. 3M is famous for this approach, allowing its developers to spend a certain percentage of their time perusing their own projects as a way of encouraging bottom-up ideas.
An unwillingness to cannibalize sales The only way to prolong success is, paradoxically, to destroy it and create something even more valuable. Technology companies know that they must consistently add new features at lower prices if they want to stay ahead in the market.
A reliance on a small cadre of innovators Relying on a small development to identify, create and deliver game-changing innovations is unrealistic. You have to cast a much wider net. In the past five years Proctor and Gamble has dramatically increased its willingness to work with external organizations and now aims to develop at least half of its new growth through these external networks.
Once you are willing to accept failure as part of the innovation process, lead rather than follow customers, involve your whole organization and beyond, cannibalize your existing business, and see innovation as a way of life, you're on the way to make real progress.